Boston Blackie's Rendezvous

Someone is killing women and framing Blackie in "Boston Blackie's Rendezvous" starring Chester Morris, George E. Stone, Richard Lane, Steve Cochran, and Nina Foch.

Blackie is appealed to in the middle of the night by a man whose brother has escaped from the asylum. The man, Jimmy Cook (Steve Cochran) shows up at Blackie's later and refuses to turn himself in. He starts killing, picking up a woman at a Dime a Dance joint and then moving on to someone else who works there. He writes poetic letters to these women, so when he shows up at Sally Brown's (Foch) place, she's looking forward to meeting him.

Chester Morris is always very good as Blackie - relaxed and funny, and George E. Stone makes a good if scared sidekick. And they both drive Inspector Farraday (Lane) nuts.

However, this script left something to be desired. First of all, Blackie and the Runt go looking in their building for Cook disguised as black maids, complete with white lips like they were doing a minstrel show. That type of thing is cringe-worthy today.

Also, the Foch character is suspicious of Blackie, thinking he's the killer, lets in Cochran and buys his whole line, even accompanying him to his place. She was definitely one sandwich short of a picnic.

The film moves along quickly, with handsome Steve Cochran leaving much to be desired in an early performance, relying basically on making faces. Nina Foch was lovely, but her character wasn't fleshed out very well.

Okay entry into the series.

Chester Morris, (Boston Blackie) has the task of trying to hunt down an insane person who escapes from a mental institution and starts looking for a girl named Sally Brown,(Nina Foch) who works in a dance hall. This escaped killer has a big crush on Sally Brown and even keeps a diary on his daily thoughts about this girl. Steve Cochran,(James Cook) plays the role of the mental patient who as soon as he gets headaches, snaps into a killing urge and manages to kill another girl. Inspector Farraday,(Richard Lane) for some reason thinks that Boston Blackie has lost his mind and is doing all this killing and he stops looking for the real killer. George E. Stone,(The Runt) appears once again as Boston Blackie's sidekick and gives a great supporting role. This film is very entertaining and enjoyable to watch.

This one is almost the stuff of noir with some black comedy mixed in.

The film opens with Blackie's wealthy friend, Arthur Manleder, paying him a visit one night. Arthur is seeking Blackie's help in discreetly returning his insane nephew to the asylum from which he escaped. Blackie agrees to help. What Blackie doesn't know is that the insane nephew, Jimmy Cook (Steve Cochran) has crawled into his apartment through an open window and heard everything. Jimmy knocks Blackie unconscious after Arthur leaves, changes into Blackie's clothes and leaves.

Here's where the black comedy and noirish elements begin. Jimmy is running around town masquerading as Blackie and strangling girls although his actual objective is to meet just one girl in particular - Nina Foch as Sally Brown, with whom he's been corresponding via letters. In one case Jimmy leaves Blackie's monogrammed hat at a murder scene, in another he dumps a body in Blackie's apartment. Of course Inspector Farraday believes Blackie did it, and so, as usual, Blackie must work around the police to catch Jimmy before he can murder any more women.

This is an unusual entry because in almost every other Boston Blackie film a robbery of some kind was at the root of the crime wave. This one is different because the murders of a madman are involved with no theft behind any of the killings. You can see why Farraday would doubt Blackie where theft was concerned - it was once his trade - but it would quite be a stretch to believe Blackie would become the murderer of random women and that The Runt, Blackie's rather timid pal, would just go along for the ride! As for Steve Cochran, he is pitch perfect as the killer with those dark eyes and expression that goes from hopeless romantic to crazed maniac in the blink of an eye.

Highly recommended as an entertaining and unusually complex entry in the Boston Blackie series. Just expect things to be a little more on the heavy and tense side than usual for the series. What does the lighten the mood in this one, probably unintentionally? An autographed picture of Boston Blackie prominently displayed in his own apartment turned what should have been a tense moment in the film into a laugh out loud one, at least for me. Enjoy.

Rendezvous was a harder entry in the Blackie series (9/14), dealing with a cunning escaped lunatic who strangles women as easy as breathing. The loony was played by wide eyed and breathless tough cookie Steve Cochran, who managed to pin a murder onto Blackie and Runt, who have Farraday and Matthews after them as usual.

Some neat detective moments trying to track down the woman he was really after. The worst thing about the film to me is the pointless murder of the hotel chambermaid - we knew he was a bad hat to be avoided anyway without that - and afterwards her body was the subject of a short comedy routine! Harder, like I said.

But as to be expected, lots of witty repartee between the main protagonists make it another good b picture to watch in the best Boston Blackie mould.

Boston Blackie's Rendezvous (1945)

*** (out of 4)

Ninth film in Columbia's Boston Blackie series once again features Chester Morris in the role. In this film, a psychopath (Steve Cochran) escapes from an asylum and begins to strangle various women. It appears he's working his way down a line until he can meet a dancer (Nina Foch) he became obsessed with in the asylum. Blackie (Morris), The Runt (George E. Stone) and Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) are once again hot on the case. This is a step up from the last couple films I've seen in the series because it's unlike anything that came before it. Cochran is very good as the killer and the screenplay doesn't shy away from his evilness. Morris, Stone and Lane are as entertaining as ever. Morris gets to do a couple nice magic tricks in the film and the twist involving the killer trapping him was well written.